Mental Illness is highly prevalent in our society – 45% of Australians aged between 16 and 85 will experience a mental illness at some point in their lives, and 20% will suffer from mental health issues during any given year. Given these statistics, employers will likely deal with at least a few employees who […]
As the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has painfully revealed, our most trusted institutions have at times mishandled some of the worst cases of child abuse imaginable. It is becoming clear to us as a nation that the trust given by children and other vulnerable people to individuals in positions of […]
In hindsight, a workplace bullying situation can seem both regrettable and avoidable. Yet time and again, we find that the circumstances leading to the making of a bullying complaint were predictable, or at least displayed a reasonable risk of complaints of bullying occurring. What we can all agree on is by the time a complaint […]
You Just Discovered a Worker May Be a Paedophile: What Now? Finding out that someone you know might be a paedophile can cause quite a shock. And when that person is an employee, a whole raft of questions can surface at once. Who reported this, and in what manner? How should you go about finding […]
The Reasonable Person Test Explained The ‘reasonable person’ test is one of those legal quirks that form an enduring part of the common law, despite being very hard to actually define. One human causing damage to another is certainly a tale as old as history itself. And judges in various forms have always had the […]
Joanne was keen to take up a new position in an office she had previously worked in. She looked forward to working with former colleagues. But far from being greeted with the bonhomie and friendship she had been familiar with, she was met with the cold shoulder. Excluded from morning teas and team lunches, no […]